Seven Americans Among Hostages Captured In Algeria In Retaliation Over French Mali Incursion

Just because the endless Israel vs Iran foreplay seems to no longer be exciting the world as much as it did all throughout 2010, 2011 and 2012 when military action seemed imminent over and over, it appears the world has a new geopolitical tension point: the recent incursion into Mali by French (and soon many other) forces, to protect "European interests" against "extremists" operating in the North, and as a corollary - the retaliation by the locals against Western Democratic powers. At least such is the simplistic plot line. Sure enough moments ago Reuters reported that islamist militants attacked a gas field in Algeria on Wednesday, claiming to have kidnapped up to 41 foreigners including seven Americans in a dawn raid in retaliation for France's intervention in Mali, according to regional media reports. The raiders were also reported to have killed three people, including a Briton and a French national. Subsequent reports indicate that the Algerian captives have been let go, and that this is purely an escalation against the invaders, an act which the US state department will harshly condemn at a 1pm press conference, and likely use as a catalyst to unleash US forces in the air or on the ground, to support the French campaign which at last check was going horribly.

The attack took place in the gas field in Amenas, Alegeria, operated by a joint venture of BP, Statoil and the Algerian state company Sonatrach, presented below (via Google Maps)

And just so the average American is up to speed, the keyword "Al Qaeda" has been unleashed. One assumes this is a different Al Qaeda than the one organizing and coordinating the Syrian opposition activities against the local government which the US is also not a fan of.

An al Qaeda affiliated group said the raid had been carried out because of Algeria's decision to allow France to use its air space for attacks against Islamists in Mali, where French forces have been in action against al Qaeda-linked militants since last week.

The attack in southern Algeria also raised fears that the French action in Mali could prompt further Islamist revenge attacks on Western targets in Africa, where al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) operates across borders in the Sahara desert, and in Europe.

AQIM said it had carried out Wednesday's raid on the In Amenas gas facility in Algeria, Mauritania's ANI news agency reported.

The Algerian interior ministry said: "A terrorist group, heavily armed and using three vehicles, launched an attack this Wednesday at 5 a.m. against a Sonatrach base in Tigantourine, near In Amenas, about 100 km (60 miles) from the Algerian and Libyan border."

The gas field is operated by a joint venture including BP , Norwegian oil firm Statoil and Algerian state company Sonatrach.

BP said armed men were still occupying facilities at the gas field.

"The site was attacked and occupied by a group of unidentified armed people at about 0500 UK time. Contact with the site is extremely difficult, but we understand that armed individuals are still occupying the In Amenas operations site," it said.

Algeria's official APS news agency said a Briton and an Algerian security guard had been killed and seven people were injured. A French national was also killed in the attack, a local source said.

Also among those reported kidnapped by various sources were five Japanese nationals working for the Japanese engineering firm JGC Corp, a French national, an Irishman, a Norwegian and a number of Britons.

A member of an Islamist group styling itself the "Blood Battalion" was quoted by Mauritanian media as saying that five of the hostages were being held at the gas facility and 36 were in a housing area. APS said the Islamist raiders had freed Algerians working at the gas facility.

"The operation was in response to the blatant interference by Algeria and the opening of its air space to French aircraft to bomb northern Mali," the Islamist spokesman told Mauritania's ANI news agency.

ANI, which has regular direct contact with Islamists, said that fighters under the command of Mokhtar Belmokhtar were holding the foreigners.

Belmokhtar for years commanded al Qaeda fighters in the Sahara before setting up his own armed Islamist group late last year after an apparent fallout with other militant leaders.

The Algerian army was in the area of the gas facility, according to French and Algerian sources.

The attack was the first time in years that Islamist militants are known to have launched an attack on an Algerian energy facility.

The attack could have implications for security across the whole of Algeria's energy sector, which supplies about a quarter of Europe's natural gas imports and exports millions of barrels of crude oil each year.

Such an attack would require a large and heavily-armed insurgent force with a degree of freedom to move around -- all elements that al Qaeda has not previously had.

However, the conflict in neighbouring Libya in 2011 changed the balance of force. Security experts say al Qaeda was able to obtain arms, including heavy weapons, from the looted arsenals of former leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Statoil, a minority shareholder in the gas venture, said it had 17 employees at the plant and four of them had been evacuated. The company declined to comment on the other 13.

The five Japanese work for the engineering firm JGC Corporation, Jiji news agency reported, quoting company officials. JGC has a deal with Sonatrach-BP-Statoil Association for work in gas production at In Amenas.

A reporter for Japan's NHK television managed to call a JGC worker in Algeria.

The worker said he got a phone call from a colleague at the gas field. "It was around 6 a.m. this morning. He said that he had been hearing gunshots for about 20 minutes. I wasn't able to get through to him since."

French troops launched their first ground operation against Islamist rebels in Mali on Wednesday in an action to dislodge from a strategic town al Qaeda-linked fighters who have resisted six days of air strikes.

No what this is is French desperation to do something to energize their sinking economy, and they figured they could take out the Mali rebels quickly. LOL!

But everybody knows war is expensive, so if this thing gets longer than its time to issue massive amounts of French debt, with the ECB as the buyer. Germany does not like this one bit ... any wonder the Germans want ALL of their gold out of Paris?

lol. And didn't the German took some of their gold out of the fed too? Relating the gold rapatriation with the intervention in Mali is ludicrous. The number of morons on this site if fucking astonishing. ZH used to be a good place to get great information. Its quality has decreased proportionately with its popularity, unfortunately.

You could be more thankful too. If it weren't for european resistance, you would be speaking german too - or russian... Oh, and don't forget that much of vital nazi financing and support was provided by such fine americans as Ford, Rockefeller, Kennedy, Bush, etc.

After their WWI Machine gun sucesss....I don´t think they made anymore...but Puegot is such a nice car.........their guns instead of bayonet attachements...they have surrender flag attachements....sorry....I hate the French

Did I say so? ZH used to be a place where you could have decent, informed conversations in the comment section. Not the case any more as it is parasited by an unlimited number of fucking morons. And the quality of the posts on ZH is also going down hill as well, as ideology and hate for certain of groups, countries, etc. has more and more taken over fact based analysis. This post is a prime example of it with statements like: "to support the French campaign which at last check was going horribly.", which is in contradiction with what's really happening, as anybody who's following the events closely knows.

I was disgusted by both the article and the comments on the French rescue attempt and Mali air attack two days ago. You will now get attacked by small minded ideologues who have never done a day's military service in their life. One poster earns his crust in an arabian tax free emirate. Two faced twat.

Being victimized by the Arabs of El Andaluz for centuries (being raided and raped while Spanish collaborators were then spared in submission) the French are the most pitiful tribe
out of Europe, genetically speaking.Even worse than our weasel vassal German rape victims, who got it from all
sides in their plains and have all the bastards to prove it.

Franks they all are no more, the color of their colonial history just mirrors their own abuse and the desire to pass
the curse upon others.

"to support the French campaign which at last check was going horribly."

And where did you get that information from? All information coming from the ground seems to indicate that the operation is going according to plan... Wishful thinking much Tyler? Don't let your hate for anything related to France blur your vision of, well, the facts.

All information coming from the ground seems to indicate that the operation is going according to plan

Well, don't know what 'ground' is talking to you, but the ground in Diabaly and Konna are saying that the rag tag rebels are still holding their ground. And Konna was not retaken as previously reported...

It will all be about oil and gold, with a little water rights sprinkled in, from now to the "great reset"!

And the funny thing about gold is, once it's in YOUR vault or safe, you start to think it YOURS!! Even if its your mother in laws, fathers, or closest geopolitical ally!

Can't wait for France to say to Germany, sorry it was stolen on transport to your loading location! The French know god damn well, what this request really means!!! If fucking Germany wants its gold back, ALL of it, what do you think the other weaker Countries are gonna say, that have Gold in Paris?

I agree with Tyler on this one, this is fucking BIG!!!!!! This may well be the crack in the Keynesian damn!

Did any of the 41 foreigners have g*ns ? Maybe the nice captors were just trying to perform a g*nectomy on the BP team ? Maybe we aren't allowed to defend ourselves any more with g*ns ? I sure hope they can talk nice to the leaders with their AK's. Is the executive leadership aware of this conflict and do they need someone to write some nice letters to the terrorific men who took the hostages ?

"The French Government has to be the weakest in the world." coming from somebody living in a country where the people in charge can't agree on anything meaningful from the fiscal cliff, to the debt ceiling, to gun control, to... shall I say more?

did you read about their botched hostage rescue? They reported 1 commando was killed and one captured, while the hostage got killed. The "terrorists" then affirmed that the hostage was in fact alive several hundred miles away.

Because we all know that the US military never failed any of its missions...

"A U.S. Army force in Mogadishu, consisting primarily of U.S. Army Rangers from 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment; Bravo Company, 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D), better known as "Delta Force"; and helicopters from 1st Battalion,160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, attempted to seize two of Aidid's high-echelon lieutenants during a meeting in the city. Shortly after the assault began, Somali militia and armed civilian fighters managed to shoot down two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. The subsequent rescue operation to secure and recover the crews of both helicopters drew the raid, intended to last no more than an hour, into an overnight standoff in the city. The battle resulted in 18 U.S. deaths, 80 wounded, and 1 helicopter pilot captured among the raid party and rescue forces"

By the way, Tabarnac is not a french expression, it's a Canadian one, in case you didn't know.

He was released 11 days later. They made a move about the whole thing. "Blackhawk Down"

The frenchie above clipped his quote short. "American sources estimate between 1500 and 3000 Somali casualties." The midpoint makes that a 125-to-1 KD spread. I will note that the Somalies claim it wasnt such an embarrassing blowout.

Quebecer's are too polite and respect their mothers too much to let that come out without being beaten to death by any woman in ear shot then promtply beaten by the men. So they curse the Church. Tabarnac, Tabernacle. Much easier than an ass beating.

Some words don't have a spelling in Quebecois because they are gaelic or local aboriginal dilects that are used in the language.

Like Ottawa has Franglais even has Lebanese and a bit of Chinese mixed in it, so if you want to build your vocabulary, you listen to French in an near English sentence structure. It's a bitch trying to fit the French language from that structure though into real French.

The French changes past Hawesbury towards Montreal and the language flips back into French grammar structure. It's so weird, listen for the change over right on the border. Then there is a French language I heard over the summer near the border of Maine and New Brunswick and it almost sounded like Manx Gaelic being spoken with french verbs, it wasn't Accadian though....anycase language and historical dialects, a subject that is very cool.

as for the boondoggles of the US and any other nations - I wasn't calling your children ugly. I have nothing particularly nice to say about any of the western military stooges in general Including those within my own border other than they are filled with largely well meaning brainwashed kids and evil old string pullers.

Now that all the Americans are disarmed, or if they are armed then will be promptly persecuted and locked-up, then maybe we can convince our leadership to get some kids to write some nice letters to the terrorific guests who have decided to encamp at the BP facility without any invitation, except the fact that they are now "there" so have a reason to be "there" because they have been "there" for over a day...and possession is 90% of the law.

Make no mistake, with the cold war over and the artificial
competition between east and west over and over again, why
not gracefully reconquer all those colonies ?

Never got junked by the lefties for mentioning imperialism , not even by my false friends from the left , who I just love to attack. The catch is I argue against Imperialism while
they are pushing for it , but that is an entirely different
story...and beyond their understanding, I must concede.

Key Point: which way China comes down on these escapades. I think China has been laying in sod in Africa for many years now...and China may have dibs on the take. Between this and Japan and Taiwan...I think China has been getting ready too.

Well I think I was perhaps the only zero hedge guy these past few months pointing to major French investment in Algeria & indeed oil poor Morocco.............

The French banks & corporations are using fleeing Spanish and other PIig funds to create another wage arbitrage zone - screwing their home workers in the process - all so as to keep the Euro monetary monster alive.

OF COURSE they are 'Al Queda affiliated'. That is code for 'now we can do whatever the hell we want, whereever the hell we want, whenever the hell we want, and dont even need to pretend to ask Congress or the UN'

More face time for Hillary ! Mute The Mulatto .... clean for three days .... did not listen to the Obama/Biden patty cake announcement .... this is the easiest thing I've ever done .... take the pledge .... mute the mulatto !

US Americans, through Algeria, were pushing hard to achieve a partition of Mali, with the creation of a new independent Nation State, the Azawad, with the obvious goal of resetting every national contract, as it was done previously in many other cases.

Apparently, the rebels in Mali double crossed everyone, their US American allies and their Algerian friends by launching a full scale assault on the south.

In order to keep the face, both 'america' and Algeria were forced to take measures. One being removing more or less ostensibly the support to the rebels.

Who did not like to appreciate the back stabbing.

'Americanism' at work.

'Americans' vs 'americans'

Going to be fun. Wont stop 'americans' from wasting money on their disastrously poor entertainment items as they have to perform the 'american' duty of consumption, but it is going to be fun, treachery, holier than you, I am saving humanity, not myself typical 'american' attitudes...

I bet it's much easier to drum up a war in an African nation than it is to try to drag a NATO country into one across the Syrian border. Especially if it's a war against "terrorists".

This whole Mali thing came so totally out of the blue it's got "manufactured event" practically stamped on it. Anyone from down Mali way want to look out their window and see if any of this is actually going on?

The Libyan war has resulted directly in the new Mali conflict. The USA and NATO bombed heavily to achieve victory for rebel forces and destroy the government and country of Libya. It is no longer a nation, but a vast set of competing ethnic groups and tribes, many run by warlords well loaded up on arms taken from Libyan army stores looted after the war.

Many Mali rebels were fighters in the Libyan war but were driven out when the pro USA elements won control of some parts of Libya.

France has interests in the area as this is where French businesses are outsourcing and resource extracting. Plus the French fancy themselves a world power and are itching for a place to bomb and send in special forces and the Foreign Legion. Mali fits the bill, and being close to Algeria a country France is deeply invested in, France see many reasons to fight.

Al-Qaeda is now a dual force. 1 force is used by NATO as a force to attack anti NATO countries like Syria and Libya before it. Once Al-Qaeda wins, then the west is stuck with both pro USA elements and anti USA elements. The Benghazi attack was blow back from anti USA Al-Qaeda. Oddly, the US folks killed were operating a pro Al-Qaeda recruiting station for Jihadists seeking arms and transport to Syria to wage Jihad against a secular government under Assad. So the US has to always watch it's back, not knowing if it's Al-Qaeda allies might prove to contain anti US elements. Al-Qaeda is not a formal organization, they are a rag tag bunch of Jihadists willing to either fight or support the USA depending on what today's goals are. Killing Assad is a goal, so they take US support.

Benghazi is a FOX news talking point, and a joke. Al_qaeda blow back from a policy FOX supports 100%. FOX wants war on Iran. FOX wants war on Syria. FOX wants war on China. FOX wants war on Russia. FOX want Israel to be the sole ruler of America. Fuck FOX, and Fuck their stupid attempt to make Benghazi anything more than a failed attempt to funnel Al-Qaeda to war in Syria, which FOX supports.

the libyan caper has now got the whole of Sahel into the new world order face off started with the Bush senior NWO declaration of 1991.

What the west has sown it will now continue to reap.

We are now into deep regression; as corpo fascism faces up to religious fascism. Those who will lose in this ominous new beginnings of "controlled regional wars", to globalise the corpocracy control of world resources, are the people.

Alexander Dumas created a wonderful motto : all for one one for all. It was romanticising the legacy of Battle of Valmy revolution theme of a united people. The old Euro world was supposed to change from then on. It went the other way with Napoleon...

The fall of the Berlin Wall was supposed to herald in a new age of non totalitariian values, like in 1789-1792 days the enlightenment.

It ended in NWO and globalised Corpocracy : one for all all for one is now re-interpreted as 99% of world ressouces for 1% globalists and 1% of world ressouces for 99% of sheeple population.

And Algeria like Mali have now got sucked into the global economic standoff hiddden behind the ideological smoke screen of "war against terrorism". What does terrorism mean?

Ask Ho chi Minh; He fought it for thirty years, albeit using populist terrorism to fight colonial variety. And we learnt nothing from that tragedy...

To me this is france´s baby...i think Algerians can go to France as it used to be a colony...no passport needed...and they will flood into France again...if AQ takes over...so France has to stop the stampede...but they will ask for help of course....they will just want to lead..not get their hands dirty

I have several questions: If I declare myself an al Qaeda affiliated group (isn't everyon doing it), will I get really noticed and become famous and then rich? If not, why not? Hey I can run outdoors in the street and wave my various lead spitting weapons in the air, and jump up and down, and screm Alla Ackbar, so why not? I can even then - after the reporters show up with live TV cameras - spout my grievances (ex-wives, snotty spoiled children), and my 7th century personal religious dogma that I want to impose on my neighbors. Can I be labeled a "terrorist"; I mean what is a terorrist anyway.? I want to be one, I want to be rich and famous. I am tired of just being a nobody, and poor at that.

I have several questions: If I declare myself an al Qaeda affiliated group (isn't everyon doing it), will I get really noticed and become famous and then rich? If not, why not? Hey I can run outdoors in the street and wave my various lead spitting weapons in the air, and jump up and down, and screm Alla Ackbar, so why not? I can even then - after the reporters show up with live TV cameras - spout my grievances (ex-wives, snotty spoiled children), and my 7th century personal religious dogma that I want to impose on my neighbors. Can I be labeled a "terrorist"; I mean what is a terorrist anyway.? I want to be one, I want to be rich and famous. I am tired of just being a nobody, and poor at that.

Wait. Isn't it a tad foreseeable that if you're wanting to bomb the beejeezus out of poorly defended desert countries in Africa and if you have nationals and/or mining interests you are unfairly exploiting in the neighboring desert, that said interests will be attacked, raided, sabotaged and hostages taken?

That's the captured Americans fault for being outside of fantasyland and having their hands in bullshit they shouldn't. "Oh the poor starving Africans"???? Please assholes, what about the poor starving Americans? It's all a fucking joke.